Palm Springs, CA (December 15, 2016) – The 28th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) announced that the festival’s opening night will be the World Premiere screening of The Sense of an Ending, directed by Ritesh Batra on Thursday, January 5. The festival will close with The Comedian, directed by Taylor Hackford on Sunday, January 15. The Festival will screen 190 films from 72 countries, including 58 premieres (9 World, 5 International, 20 North American and 24 U.S.) from January 2-16, 2017. The complete line-up including a focus on cinema from Poland, Premieres, New Voices/New Visions competition, Modern Masters, True Stories, After Dark and more were also announced, in addition to the Awards Buzz program released last week.

OPENING AND CLOSING SCREENINGS

PSIFF will open with the World Premiere of the CBS Film The Sense of an Ending, directed by Ritesh Batra. The film stars Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling who team up with the director of The Lunchbox in this mesmerizing adaptation of Julian Barnes’s acclaimed novel about time, memory, jealousy, and the lies we tell ourselves to survive. The film also stars Harriet Walter, Freya Mavor, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Dockery, Matthew Goode and Billy Howle. The film opens in NY and LA on March 10th.

Closing the festival will be the Sony Pictures Classics film The Comedian, directed by Taylor Hackford. Robert De Niro stars as Jackie Burke, a bitter, angry insult comic who was once the popular star of a TV sitcom, and is now trying to claw his way back on the stand-up circuit, one scabrous joke at a time. The film’s supporting cast features Leslie Mann, Danny Devito, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Keitel, Patti LuPone and Edie Falco.

“I couldn’t be more proud of this year’s lineup. The programming team has managed to pull together a plethora of different viewpoints in storytelling from around the world in hopes of generating great discussion sorely needed in these divisive times,” said Artistic Director Michael Lerman. “Between the 42 Foreign Language Oscar® submissions, each selected to represent their own country in a year that’s more competitive than ever, to the poignant work being made by Modern Masters like Kim Ki-Duk, Ken Loach, Feng Xiaogang and Steve James, to the ever-surprising first and second features in our New Voices/New Visions competition like the unmissable Zoology and Kati Kati, the festival is jam-packed with gems. Along with that, I have to say what a pleasure it is to present the World Premiere of Ritesh Batra’s second feature film, The Sense of an Ending for Opening Night. We were all massive fans of his first feature, The Lunchbox, and we can’t wait to welcome him to Palm Springs.”

A United Kingdom (UK), Director Amma Asante with Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo

White Sun (Nepal/US/Qatar/ Netherlands), Director Deepak Rauniyar

X500 (Canada/Colombia/Mexico), Director Juan Andrés Arango

FOCUS ON POLAND

The festival’s country focus this year offers new works by contemporary Polish filmmakers, each evoking a specific time and place in their country’s history and examining politics both personal and institutional. The section also honors Andrzej Wajda, one of the greats of European cinema, with screenings of his final work Afterimage as well as an archival print of his 1958 masterpiece Ashes and Diamonds. The films in the program include:

Afterimage (Poland), Director Andrzej Wajda

Ashes and Diamonds (Poland), Director Andrzej Wajda

Memories of Summer (Poland), Director Adam Guziński

The Last Family (Poland), Director Jan P. Matuszyński

United States of Love (Poland/Sweden), Director Tomasz Wasilewski

Zacma: Blindness (Poland), Director Ryszard Bugajski

NEW VOICES/NEW VISIONS

The New Voices/New Visions competitionshowcases ten films from emerging international directors bringing their first or second narrative features to the Festival. The winner is selected by a jury of festival programmers and U.S. distributors. Films selected for this year include:

After Dark films are the mysterious strangers in town, films that lurk in the shadows and tempt you into the unknown. The festival’s youngest section comes of age in 2017, as it includes the UK’s Oscar® entry in Under the Shadow, as well as films featuring Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, and Glenn Close. The films selected include:

The festival will screen two of the films selected as part of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch which include Aquarius (Brazil/France), directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and The Eagle Huntress (UK/Mongolia/U.S.), directed by Otto Bell.

Two films will screen in the Dinner & A Movie section which are Insatiable: The Homaro Cantu Story (U.S.), directed by Brett A. Schwartz and Tampopo (Japan), directed by Juzo Itami.

The festival’s Gay!La screening will be the North American Premiere of ABC’s When We Rise directed by Gus Van Sant.

Four Special Presentations including the World Premiere of Breakable You (U.S.), the U.S. Premiere of King of the Dancehall (U.S./Jamaica) directed by Nick Cannon, Old Money (Austria) directed by David Schalko and starring Udo Kier, and the North American Premiere of The Hippopotamus.

The complete line-up will be available online on December 16 at www.psfilmfest.org. Attached is a complete list of films selected for the festival. The festival will announce the Books to Screen line-up the week of December 19.

About The Palm Springs International Film Festival

The Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) is one of the largest film festivals in North America, welcoming 135,000 attendees last year for its lineup of new and celebrated international features and documentaries. The Festival is also known for its annual Film Awards Gala, a glamorous, black-tie event, presented by Chopard and sponsored by Mercedes Benz and Entertainment Tonight, and attended by 2,500. The Film Awards Gala honors the year’s best achievements in cinema in front of and behind the camera. The celebrated list of talents who have been honored in recent years includes Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Matthew McConaughey, Julianne Moore, Brad Pitt, Eddie Redmayne, Julia Roberts, David O. Russell, Meryl Streep, and Reese Witherspoon. PSIFF is organized by The Palm Springs International Film Society, a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization with a mission to cultivate and promote the art and science of film through education and cross-cultural awareness.